Accuracy: 34 m (111 ft)

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

24-Jul-2002 --
I started from Enontekio over Kautokeino to Karasjok on July 24, after my described points 21°E and 22° E on the 69th line.
From Karasjok I drove on the E6 along the boarding river TANA, on the norwegian side, until I reached Utsjoki. TANA is the natural border between Norway and Finland. From there I drove 43km on the finnish side, along the E970 to Nuorgam, the norhernest community of Finland. In these rainy conditions and at about 15° C, these 360 km took me 4 to 5 hours.

The confluence-point 70°N-28°E is in many regards a very special place. The point is located in the PULMANKIJAERVI, which is the northernmost lake in Finland. By the way, “jaervi” means lake. Furthermore, it is the northernmost point in Finland AND consequently the northernmost point of the European Currency Union.

The communities Utsjoki and Nuorgam are known for their stretch of waters that are rich in salmon, trout and sibling fish. They are important tourism places for fishermen.

The narrow road from Nuorgam to Pulmankijaervig lead me for about 15 km over a small mountain. When I got to the 70° latitude, I was able to park my car next to the road. The distance from the parked car to the lakeshore is about 300 meters and lead me downhill through woods. Changing clothes and assemblying my boat took me about 20 minutes. Quite a while ago I had already built myself a rubber dinghy, that can be transported in a regular car: an aluminium frame, two small tubes, securing devices, a seat and a paddle. Weight: 12,5kg.

This is how I stood there on the shore: wetsuit, life-jacket and my emergency-catamaran. My GPS-device, that was set to metric display told me I had another 1.8km to go to the 28th longitude.

The eastern side of the lakeshore is in Norway, part of the Norwegian-Finnish border makes its way through this lake. This confluence-point itself however is undoubtedly on the Finnish side (see map). And I think for myself! Is it possible ? Yes or No? My knees grew weak when I saw the waves there! They were the absolute limit for my mini-cat (which is about 2-3). I would have not risked it without the wet-suit and the life-jacket. The wind blew from north and after an hour of constant paddling (north-east because of the wind-driftage), I finally reached this special point at the level of 25 meters at 14.13 p.m. (see picture Nr. 5).

The wind grew stronger so my pictures were taken quickly. I had mastered the lake about halfway in it`s width. I sent out a preset SMS from my Nokia mobile phone. Modern Finnish technique in the middle of this beautiful Finnish nature. Many things are possible in Finland.

The fear of the waves got me back to the shore even faster than I was on my way there. There was an incredible feeling of joy inside of me when I reached the shore again! The first long-distance-trip with, what I think is possibly the world´s smallest one person mini-catamaran in the world, AND the visit of the point had been successful! Big Emotions – Yes !

The required map for this tour is called Tiekartta GT 18-Inari-Utsjoki and is available in the scale of 1:200 000.
The point 69°N-28°E is situated only one latitude more southern than the point 70°N-28°E.
This point also crosses in a big large lake, the INARIYAERVI, but this one is too far away from the shore for my mini-cat and was already visited by Markku Hooli on June 27, 2002.
On my way back from Nuorgam to Enontekio I discovered the confluence-point 69°N-23°E on my map, which is located close to Kautokeino, Norway.

I am happy as a bavarian resident that I was able to do something directly for the EU even if it was only in geographic respect.

I´d like to take this opportunity to thank the Finnish tourism-office in Frankfurt for their information about Lapland and mostly of course the FINNISH PEOPLE themselves for their help and patience with my language proplems.